


Grapevine

by Bawgdan



Category: Hunter X Hunter
Genre: Awkward Romance, F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-16
Updated: 2020-06-16
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:27:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24746803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bawgdan/pseuds/Bawgdan
Summary: “I shouldn't be doing this, he thought. She is actually a nice person. for a moment he had an impulse to embrace her. He had a stronger impulse to beat her.” ~ Mary Gaitskill
Relationships: Hisoka/Machi (Hunter X Hunter)
Comments: 13
Kudos: 60





	Grapevine

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Tracking down Hisoka is a talent only Machi possesses. Chrollo says it's her good common sense, her perceptiveness, that makes her the most capable out of all of them. _She sees the clues in the empty spaces_. Pakunoda believes that Machi has a secret crush. Hisoka only answers the phone for Machi. This rumor amongst the troupe is the preferred opinion—that Hisoka and Machi do a little more than exchange material favors.

This has made Machi's life difficult because everyone expects her to translate his elusiveness. Hisoka isn't so much elusive as he is selfish. The accusations from people who supposedly know her, that she would stoop so low as to develop feelings for someone like Hisoka, makes her sick. So the dislike has calcified into irrational hatred.

She hates Hisoka. Unfortunately, the troupe aren't wrong about her timeliness when it comes to Hisoka. After a string of riddle-like text messages, Machi's intuition leads her to him.

He talked a lot about the ocean and the pastel colored buildings.

_**It's like Easter all the time here.** _

_**Machi. Do you believe in God?** _

_**OFC you don't**_.

_**Colon Three.** _

Hisoka is living it up at a coastal town. A tourist trap. People are always coming and going. It is the perfect place for someone like him to hide in plain sight. Not that he has anything to run from. Machi doesn't believe that he does. Hisoka presents himself as a chaser.

She finds the hotel via his shared location. After she'd sent him a picture of her beat up shoes on the train, he complied with vague transparency. Five more _colon threes_ and _el oh els_ later, Machi gets his room number at the front desk.

She beats on his door with her palm, really slapping the cold wood. Hisoka swings the door open, filling up the doorway. Machi forgets how tall he is after long periods of time. Truly, she forgets his face and is always stunned by the ugliness of her memory. His skin is dewy from a shower. This is another problem she has with him. He's always somewhat naked or in a state of vulnerability whenever she shows up.

"You missed another meeting." Machi never knows what to say to him. No one can successfully threaten Hisoka.

"I had better things to do." His smile sits on the right side of his face. He is suppressing a laugh.

Machi's face darkens. She ducks under his arm, squeezing her body around him, catching the smell of his deodorant and soap. He is still damp. Throwing her bag on the floor, she rubs at the trail of his wetness on her face.

"You didn't come all this way just to lecture me?" Hisoka whips the towel off his waist and Machi's lips wrinkle. He sits on the edge of the bed. Naked and vulnerable. This is what tethers them together. She has spent too much time putting him back together. This isn't the first time she's seen his penis. She's seen it a lot, to her misfortune.

"I'm here to make sure you don't miss the next one." Machi replies smoothly, like there isn't a penis between his legs.

"Chrollo thinks I need a chaperone? That's rich." He stares at her.

"Obviously, you do. Since you can't do the bare minimum, which is showing up." Machi suspects Chrollo doesn't necessarily mind Hisoka's absence. It bothers everyone else that Hisoka acts like he is above them.

"Don't you get tired of Chrollo bossing you around? Do you need his permission to shit too, Machi?" Hisoka stops smiling. Machi realizes she's never seen him frown. Hisoka has only three expressions. A scowl isn't one of them. His face is blank. He doesn't have a frowning sort of mouth.

"Watch your mouth." She despises him with deep piety.

Hisoka opens his mouth, with his tongue, he traces his lips. A thread of spit falls on his chin. Machi tightens her jaws.

"You're not here for your health, Machi." A pause sweeps in like a cold ocean tide. The hairs on the back of her neck stand up.

"No. I'm not." Machi hasn't done a healthy thing in years. _What even is healthy?_ She narrows her eyes at him.

"Sad." He sighs.

"What the hell do you even know about being healthy?" Machi has seen him at his absolute worst. Hisoka isn't concerned about his health either. He did things to his body on impulse, goes out of his way to do damage that _could_ be irreversible. As though pain is a game and he's trying to see if there's a plateau to his suffering. Machi isn't squeamish nor judgmental, she can't be, but Hisoka's pain threshold repulses her.

She asks him _Why_ so often. He cheekily responds every time _Why Not?_

"I know what it's not." Hisoka might be serious. He looks serious. She can never tell.

 _'Someone gave birth to you'._ Machi thinks to herself. Someone made Hisoka. She wonders about their opinion. Where did he get his eyes from? How much of his body isn't a result of purposeful trauma?

Hisoka stands up. Machi ignores his penis. Just like they've underestimated him, he grossly underestimates her mental fortitude. She has no sense of boundaries either. The lack of a wall between them isn't terrifying. The scariest aspect of their relationship (if it can be called that) is their unspoken understanding of how this thing works. Machi shows up, gets him back on his feet, and vanishes with the money he gives her. They are out of routine at this moment.

"You're not here for my health either," he says matter-of-factly.

"Is that suppose to make us even or something?" She doesn't want to be the person accountable for him anymore. Her first healthy desire is to be free of him. Hisoka clasps a hand around the side of her face and presses his mouth to her ear. So that the walls cannot absorb what he is about to say, an act of health, he whispers into her ear, "It is ok to like my transparency. It feels nice to be seen."

And he further surprises her, breathing on the side of her face.

"This is what knowing a person feels like." He smiles against her cheek.

"Really? It has never occurred to me." Machi's frustration grows, almost too big for her body to contain. Does she **actually** hate Hisoka or does she hate the implications of knowing him so well?

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**Author's Note:**

> I'm in a writing funk. I can't seem to commit myself to this ship like everything else. Perhaps it is because I have too much going on as it is. It's possible my natural habitat is funk.


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